The University of Alabama at Birmingham General Clinical Research Center is a multidisciplinary facility available to faculty members of the Schools of Medicine and Dentistry for the pursuit of clinical investigation. The GCRC and its staff facilitate the meticulous control of experimental conditions, close observation and accurate monitoring of biologic phenomena, and the precise measurement of biochemical and physiological events which occur in patients and normal volunteers participating in research activities. Facilities of the Center increase the efficiency and productivity of research efforts on individually funded projects, afford participants more flexibility in taking new research directions, and promote more collaborative research among a group having multidisciplinary approaches to science. Research projects involve the following investigations: post-transplantation hypertension, disorders of the immune system, renal diseases, multiple sclerosis, herpesvirus infections, AIDS, cytomegalovirus infection, anaplastic gliomas, left ventricular dysfunction, cardiac arrhythmia, histoplasmosis, metastatic melanoma, aspergillus, monoclonal antibody in advanced colorectal carcinoma, advanced ovarian carcinoma, cisplatin toxicities, fat malabsorption in AIDS and ARC patients, gastroesophageal reflux, candidemia, condylomata acuminata, extrarenal potassium disposal in sickle cell anemia, atrial natriuretic peptide in chronic hypoxic pulmonary hypertension, epinephrine sensitivity in hypokalemic periodic paralysis, antifolate therapy of autoimmune diseases, dopamine antagonism on craving and loss of control in alcoholics, role of saliva in determining the alkaline environment of the esophagus, chimeric anti-CD4 in rheumatoid arthritis, epinephrine on extrarenal potassium disposal in end-stage renal disease, renal dysfunction in cyclosporin-treated kidney transplant patients, extrarenal potassium disposal in diabetic dialysis patients, glycine therapy for 3-methyl crotonyl COA carboxylase deficiency, asymptomatic cardiac ischemia, atherosclerotic heart disease, growth factor expression and production in lungs in progressive systemic disease.